“Many buildings have not decided how they want to do it or have not actually understood the issue of responsibility. After we received guidelines [from the government], people began the discussions.”
Yan, who owns one of the city’s biggest property management firms Li Hing Environmental Services Company, said his firm had carried out a trial at a public estate and found the arrangement had resulted in a 20 per cent increase in cleaners’ working hours.
From April 1, residents will be required to dispose of their rubbish in prepaid bags that cost 11 HK cents (1 US cent) per litre. Those who fail to follow the rules could be issued with a HK$1,500 fixed-penalty ticket. Serious offences can lead to a HK$25,000 fine and six months’ jail, with subsequent breaches resulting in a HK$50,000 fine and six months in prison.
The scheme, first proposed 20 years ago, was supposed to take effect by the end of last year, but authorities postponed it, citing the need for additional time to figure out the logistics.
Debates over whether property management offices should bear the costs of the prepaid bags if residents fail to follow the rules have resurfaced recently.
Hong Kong’s waste charging scheme has loopholes, cleaning industry warns
Hong Kong’s waste charging scheme has loopholes, cleaning industry warns
The Environmental Protection Department earlier said it would not ban property management companies from using extra large prepaid bags to collect rubbish from their residents, but it would not exempt households from the legal responsibility of using designated bags when disposing of waste.
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Tuesday said on his blog that in cases where residents failed to use the prepaid bags, property management companies would need to wrap the waste in the bags before handing them over to collectors, but this did not mean people could throw away their garbage freely.
Yan said companies or residential buildings had no choice but to clean up after irresponsible residents under the scheme.
“It is illegal for our frontline workers to collect garbage that is not wrapped in prepaid bags,” he said. “Thus, property management companies or the owners’ associations will need to place the garbage in prepaid bags themselves. If they don’t do this, the garbage can’t be taken to the garbage trucks or the trucks will refuse to take it.”
Official views differ on strength of Hong Kong waste-charging publicity efforts
Official views differ on strength of Hong Kong waste-charging publicity efforts
He said some residential buildings would prepare prepaid bags for cleaners or use an extra large one for the garbage on each floor.
“Take us for example, when we see garbage without the prepaid bags, we will notify the property management office, which can then report it to the Environmental Protection Department,” he said. “We may also directly call the department so that it can dispatch officers to investigate the issue.”
Greeners Action’s senior public affairs officer Beatrice Siu Wing-yin disagreed that the property management office should simply wrap the garbage from all residents in an extra large bag to avoid being penalised, saying this would go against the “polluter pays” principle.
“Under this situation, property management companies may simply collect a fixed expense from all the residents for the prepaid bags,” she said on the same radio show. “It is unfair to those who have reduced their waste.”
Siu said residential buildings should regularly put up notices stating the number of prepaid bags that they had to use to collect illegal waste to improve awareness.
She added that the extra-large bags could only be bought through government-designated channels and that authorities should closely monitor the number of bags purchased by each residential building to analyse whether serious violations had occurred or illegal dumping sites had emerged.
Wan Chai district councillor Peggy Lee Pik-yee said she had received many inquiries from people who were confused about the scheme, adding that it was “unreasonable” to ask the property management offices to pay extra for the irresponsible behaviour of residents.
She also expressed concerns that asking residents to report violations might damage relationships between neighbours, urging the government to strengthen monitoring and law enforcement actions instead.
Official views differ on strength of Hong Kong waste-charging publicity efforts
Official views differ on strength of Hong Kong waste-charging publicity efforts
Theresa Wu King-yan, assistant director of the department’s municipal solid waste charging policy division, said residents could monitor and remind each other about the scheme to prevent violations.
She said the authorities advised against residential buildings wrapping all garbage from each floor in a large bag to avoid penalties.
“It means that the property management has to spend HK$11 on each floor,” Wu told the same radio show.
“Although the law does not prohibit using the prepaid bags for the public trash can, in terms of operational or cost effectiveness, the owners’ associations and property management companies will need to think clearly whether they should do so, as it will encourage residents to violate the law.”
Wu said authorities would not consider expanding the list of places selling the prepaid bags as they had to prevent counterfeit bags from entering the market. She added that retailers were encouraged to allow customers to buy prepaid bags as their shopping bags so that they could reuse them for waste disposal.
